Pain
by frangipani blossom
Summary: Continuation of 'Misplaced'; Dick wants to comfort Zatanna after the loss of her father but doesn't know how. While trying to come up with an idea, he recalls what it had been like for himself back then... The story is better than the summary. No romance per se, but hints of Chalant...
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys, I'm back from vacation and I have brought a new story with me! :D I had watched 'Misplaced' shortly before vacation and then had the urge to write something about. I am aware that many others have already written about that episode and did an excellent job with it, but I couldn't help myself but share my story with you. I hope you will enjoy it. :)**

**There could be a couple of grammatical mistakes in here; I am no native speaker of the English language and during vacation I had no access to the Internet to look up stuff I wasn't certain about. I tried my best to do the checking afterwards but I may have overlooked one or two things. If you spot any errors, please tell me. :)**

**By the way, I don't own anything...**

Pain

Chapter 1

"My room is right next door if you need anything..." M'gann offered, when she, Robin and Artemis put down the last of Zatanna's boxes in the new room of the magician.

"I... could... use a little alone time..., okay?" Zatanna asked, her voice already cracking in pain she could no longer hide.

"Of course," Artemis agreed readily. Readily because the blonde archer had no idea how to act around the young magician since... Doctor Fate's, well... _re-appearance_.If _that_ had happened to her mother, Artemis wouldn't know what to do. And she was sure that Zatanna felt that way. But, having been taught by her father to never show her emotions, Artemis had trouble expressing her feelings.

She'd rather try taking down the whole Injustice League on her own.

M'gann was also kind of relieved to be able to leave the room – so many hurtful emotions were flowing off Zatanna (and strangely Robin, too) that the Martian was threatened to become overwhelmed by them.

Therefore, the two girls were rather grateful to leave, with Robin on their tails.

But, before leaving the room, the Boy Wonder took one short moment to turn around and shot Zatanna one last meaningful glance. If the desperate teenage girl had seen his look, she would have observed that it wasn't a glance of pity (which she had witnessed so many people giving her), but of sympathy and actual _understanding_.

But instead Zatanna stared straight ahead, fighting against the upcoming tears at least until she was alone.

When she heard the door closing, she sat down on the bed in her new, unfamiliar room that had no windows and felt so cold, so unwelcoming, and let her tears flow.

On the other side of the door, Robin could hear the magician crying.

He was the only one to notice; Artemis and M'gann were already out of hearing range: The team's archer had marched directly to the training room, determined to let out her frustration by punching the hell out of a training dummy and the sad Martian girl had headed to the kitchen in order to seek comfort from Conner.

The youngest crime-fighter of the team wished he could somehow help the crying girl on the other side of the door, but nothing came to his mind.

Still the sound of Zatanna's sobbing in his head, the young acrobat went to his room, throwing himself on the bed he barely used. Staring at the ceiling for a while, he tried to gain control of his emotions. He knew it was to no avail when a single tear (he hadn't even noticed forming) slid down his cheek – there were just so many feelings stirring inside him; most of all sympathy because of the pain he knew Zatanna had to feel, a pain that none of his friend should ever have to experience.

But also a pain that he knew all too well.

He knew what she was going through: the pain because of the loss of her Dad, but also the despair that came with having nobody in the whole wide world (at least that was what it felt like). The anger, the sadness, hopelessness and - the most damaging of all that feelings -

the guilt.

The guilt because you didn't do something that could have saved them, or - in Zatanna's case – the guilt because she had done something that had made her father act like he had.

That guilt was the emotion that really could destroy you. It could make you stop living at all; not like in killing your body in a physical way - but in a way that it _forbade_ you to live, or rather to enjoy living: because you were not worth having one single hour of happiness.

Dick shuddered; he remembered what it had felt like – life had simply been _empty_.

It was nothing he wanted Zatanna to experience, but what could be done against it?

Dick knew how powerful it was, he had gone through it himself at the age of eight:

After his parents' death, he had been forced to leave the circus - the only place he'd ever, really known by then – and had been shoved into this completely different world in which he didn't know anyone. Then, he had been taken in by this tall, intimidating man with the huge, scary house, in which just he and an elderly man lived. It had been frightening for an eight-year-old and he hadn't wanted anyone near him at first. Dick didn't know how many attempts it took for Alfred and Bruce to finally get him open up, but he knew that it'd been _many_.

But after sharing his view, his emotions, he had felt better already. Certainly, the pain hadn't vanished at once (it had never really left) but now he could enjoy living again - and he made sure he lived every day to its fullest.

It was just what his parents had wanted him to do.

A small smile formed on the raven-haired teen's lips.

Now he knew what he had to do: the same thing Bruce and Alfred had done for him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi, here is the second and last chapter! **

**I want to thank everyone who read (and maybe even faved/followed ;) it; I hope you'll enjoy it! :)**

Chapter 2

After paying the Batcave a visit via Zeta-beam, Dick returned to Mount Justice with a light blue plastic box. The little bird was greeted by a munching Wally; and even though Dick was used to his best friend eating constantly, he could barely understand a word.

"Wally, no talking while eating, right?"

The speedster swallowed hastily, then repeated: "Dude, where have you been? We're having lunch right now; M'gann made not-burned pizzas! But because we weren't sure where you were and if you would show up, I kinda already ate your slices as well... - you don't mind, do you?"

Dick couldn't suppress a grin when he saw relief washing over Wally's face after telling the speedster that he had already eaten.

Then the Boy Wonder turned serious: "Is Zee in the kitchen?"

The redhead's expression darkened, while shaking his head: "No. She said she wasn't hungry though I highly doubt that. On the other hand, who am I to say when normal people are hungry or not?"

As if to confirm his statement, Wally's stomach rumbled loudly.

The speedster cheeks turned slightly red: "Well... I'm going back to the others, hopefully they haven't eaten all the pizzas on their own yet... – 'you going to join us?"

The ebony-haired teen shook his head: "Later maybe. I want to look after Zee first."

Wally just nodded in understanding and hurried back to the kitchen.

Dick headed in the direction of Zatanna's room. When he finally reached her door, he stopped and listened. No sobbing, just sniffing every now and then.

Okay, now was the time.

…

Maybe it wasn't time yet? Perhaps he should wait a little more...?

'Gosh, Grayson, get yourself together,' the young crime-fighter thought angrily,' this is not definitely _not_ the time for you to turn into a** coward**!'

Clutching the plastic box a little tighter, Dick pulled himself together and knocked.

A muffled voice answered: "I'm really not hungry, Artemis-"

"It's not Artemis, it's me -"

"Robin?"

"Yeah."

No response, except for some rustling of bed sheets.

Taking a deep breath, Dick continued: "Zee? Can... can I come in?"

Some more rustling. Then:

"It's open."

Carefully, the little bird opened the door and slid inside, then closed it silently. When he turned around, he could still see all the boxes standing right where M'gann, Artemis and he had put them down, except for one; it had been moved next to the bed and was ripped open.

Dick let his gaze wander to Zatanna; the magician was curled up on the bed, clutching a framed photograph to her chest. Her eyes and nose were slightly red and her hair fell messily in her eyes.

Though in Dick's eyes it didn't stop her from looking pretty.

He then slowly went up to Zatanna and sat down on the edge of her bed, holding up the plastic box he had taken with him : "I... I brought you something."

The magician looked surprised, put down the photo next to her and took the box: "What's in there?"

Her voice was still a little coarse from crying, though she tried hard to conceal it.

The Boy Wonder pretended not to notice: "I know you said you weren't hungry, but I thought you might like them."

Then he opened the box and in there were – cookies (more importantly, Alfred's cookies, not that he could tell her that).

Zatanna just stared at the cookies.

"Don't worry, I didn't make them myself or otherwise they would be uneatable – even for Wally," Dick added, slowly becoming nervous because the raven-haired girl still hadn't said a word," but they are really great. And... -"

He didn't get the chance to say anything else, because Zatanna had already flung her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck, new tears making their way down the magician's cheeks.

The acrobat wrapped his arms protectively around the sobbing girl, rubbing circles on her back soothingly.

But Zatanna didn't have much more tears left to shed and therefore, stopped crying soon.

Embarrassed, she looked up, her blue eyes meeting the shades that concealed the eyes of her friend.

"I'm sorry,... I... I stained your shirt," she apologized, still sniffing.

"That's okay," the little bird assured her, squeezing her arm reassuringly, "I have more than one."

The magician couldn't help but crack a smile. Then she carefully untangled herself from Robin; she didn't like him seeing her so... weak.

It was almost like the acrobat could read her thoughts, because after she had positioned herself new, he said: "Zee, you know that you're not weak for showing your feelings, right? Actually, that is perfectly normal; I'd rather be concerned if you weren't."

But Zatanna didn't want to talk further about it and instead observed: "You treat me differently than the others do."

The Boy Wonder just raised an eyebrow, while moving closer to the wall, so he could lean against it: "Yeah? How?"

"I don't know...," the magician chewed her lower lip in thought, shifting so she could sit next to him, also with her back to the wall, "you just... interact... with me, rather than only react to something I did or did not say..."

"Well, they don't know how to...handle your... situation," Dick defended his friends.

"-But you do?" Zatanna glanced at the crime-fighter in confusion.

The ebony-haired boy cleared his throat uneasily: "Not exactly... but... but I know how you feel..."

"You... you do?" The magician was almost too afraid to ask him that question.

The acrobat nodded slowly, trying to figure out how much he could tell her without revealing too much of his secret identity: "Yeah... I... I lost my parents, too..."

Zatanna couldn't help but look absolutely shocked; Robin, the one who was always ready to crack a joke or play a prank, the boy who seemed happy all the time, was an orphan?

Again, it appeared that the little bird could read her mind: "I was... eight when... _**it**_... happened, … so it's been some time ago... though I'll never be able to forget how horrible and scary it'd been then...," he explained, still struggling with himself how much he could say without giving away too much.

The raven-haired girl squeezed his hand comfortingly.

Dick gave her a little smile: "Back then, I thought I could never be happy; but my life great how it is now: I mean, I have you guys and being able to kick some bad people's butt is certainly one of the good things that comes with being taken in by Batman."

That earned him a small smile from the magician.

"Of course I'm still sometimes sad about... well, y'know... but I know that my parents would want me to be as happy as I could possibly be; I guess that's just what all parents want for their children."

"I'm sure your parents would be very proud of what you've become," Zatanna stated, resting her head on the other teen's shoulder.

"I hope so," the ebony-haired acrobat admitted, completely honest.

"I **know** so."

And even though Zatanna couldn't imagine how there could be ever any doubt, she felt Robin relaxing at her words. Then, while closing her eyes, she couldn't say anything else but: "Thank you. For everything."

Dick rested his head on hers: "Anytime, Zee; anytime."

**END**

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**P.S: I like reviews ;)**


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